8 PPC Tips for Beginners

If you’ve got a service or product that you’d like to get in front of more people, then Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is something you must learn more about. In fact PPC is an effective method that can get you more traffic, and ultimately get you more sales conversions.

How?

Let’s take a deeper look by discussing just what PPC is.

8 PPC Tips for Beginners

Pay-per-click advertising defined

PPC is a form of digital marketing where you create an advertisement, market it (usually through Google AdWords), and pay a certain amount of money every time someone clicks on your ad. Instead of getting more traffic through the more traditional organic methods, like content marketing, you essentially buy more traffic.

The most popular method of PPC is search engine advertising via Google AdWords. Google takes your ad and markets it as sponsored links when others are going about their day doing their internet searches.

Surely, you’ve typed in your search query in Google and noticed the first two or three search results have that little “AD” marked next to it. In fact, you may have become accustomed to scrolling down to find that very first unsponsored listing. Those sponsored ads are PPC marketing at work, and they’re VERY effective.

PPC tips for beginners

Are you a beginner when it comes to PPC? No shame in that. PPC, and digital marketing in general, can feel a bit overwhelming at times. If you’re not an expert, you can start reading about it and feel that anxiety start to rise. You think, “How am I ever going to learn all of this?”

Good news is that you can progressively learn more and more, and you don’t have to be marketing genius to get started. So, today let’s focus on some easy PPC for those of you who are beginners.

Know what you want

Before you begin writing Google AdWords, spend some time getting clear on your objective. What is your goal? Do you “rush hour” traffic to your site? Do you want to build your email list? Sell a specific product or service?

It’s important to know what you want so you can choose the most relevant keywords. Then, you’ll be well on your way to creating a highly persuasive advertisement.

Choose a search engine for your campaign

There are various search engines that you can choose from for your pay-per-click campaign, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google AdWords is probably the most popular. All you have to do is sign up for Google AdWords and follow their detailed instructions to get you going. There are also many video tutorials when it comes to creating Google AdWords PPC campaigns, so feel free to watch some.

Do your research

You’re going to want to do a considerable amount of time doing your keyword research. By keywords, we mean those words or phrases that are most relevant to your product or service, and what your potential customers are searching for. If you’re not able to do this yourself, then hire an SEO specialist or PPC Marketing Agency to assist you. If you skimp on this step, then your campaign will not be as effective as it can be. In fact, it might even flop. You’re going to have to put yourself in your customers shoes when choosing your keywords. What would your consumer type in the search engine? Be sure to narrow it down as much as you can.

Be persuasive

You only have a certain amount of text to convince a potential customer to click on your link. You’re going to have to choose every word wisely. This is why many businesses will hire a PPC campaign specialist to actually write the ad. You’ll be working with a heading and a very short amount of text. You may want to check and see what your competitors are using and draw from them. Or perhaps you can survey your current customers when it comes to what is most important to them regarding your product or service.

Direct the add to a landing page

Do not point your PPC add to your homepage. You want to direct your potential customer to your specific landing page for the product or service that you’re promoting. Or, if you are seeking an email or subscription, take them directly to that page. You want to let them land on a page that would allow them to make the purchase or give their email immediately, instead of sending them to the homepage where they might have to scroll around or get distracted.

Analyze results

If you’re utilizing a PPC campaign then you want to analyze your results to see if the campaign is working or not. There’s no use in using Google AdWords if you’re not getting more traffic or making more sales conversions. There are plenty of analytical tools when it comes to tracking your results, with Google Analytics being quite popular. You may have to tweak your keywords or adjust your budget along the way. Marketing is about being willing to change things up when something isn’t working. Or, you could hire a professional when you’ve done all you can do and are still not satisfied with the results.

Consider multiple campaigns

One PPC campaign is great but, oftentimes you’ll want to create additional campaigns that are based on various themes of your keywords. For example, if you’re selling toasters, for one campaign you may use keywords like “electric toaster” or “best toaster”. In another campaign, you may want to use a different theme with keywords like “kitchen gift” or “wedding gift”.

PPC campaigns may be a bit confusing at first, but after a while, you’ll catch on. It will take some time to learn the ins and outs, but each campaign you’ll get a bit more confident. As you continue to analyze your campaign results (and don’t skimp on tracking your results), you’ll learn what works for your business and what doesn’t.

And, if it doesn’t go as you wish, give yourself permission to hire a PPC professional to help your business be the best online business it can be.

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